Former Cong. Cesar Sarmiento reportedly accompanied several executives of a power firm who visited FICELCO recently.
The executives were from Energies PH Inc. (EPHI), which seeks to build Southeast Asia’s first tidal power generation plant Capul Island in Northern Samar along the San Bernardino Strait. (Capul island is where one of the motorized bancas of several fishermen who went missing last year during a storm was found.)
The company, which commits to harnessing both tidal and solar energy by using recharged hydrogen fuel cells, had already received its Confirmation of Commerciality for its San Bernardino Ocean Power Corporation from the Department of Energy in 2020.
It is reportedly setting up solar energy projects with a combined capacity of 500 megawatts in Quezon and Camarines Norte.
Its officials probably visited the local power cooperative as part of its intention to replicate the Capul tidal power plant in several off-grid sites in the country, including Catanduanes.
According to the company, tidal power is sourced from the rise and fall of the tides, with energy from the surge, as well as the pullback of ocean water. San Bernardino Strait is a suitable site with strong currents flowing from the Samar Sea and the Philippine Sea, it added.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that Capul was in the news for a tidal power plant project.
In 2017, Philippine firm H&WB Asia-Pacific Corp and French partner Sabella SAS were reported to be building a $25-million 1.5-megawatt tidal power plant project that will provide 24/7 electricity to Capul by 2019, as the first Tidal In-Stream Energy Conversion (Tisec) project not only in the country but also in Southeast Asia.
It aimed to bring down the cost of electricity in Capul which is at P22 per kilowatt-hour and provide its requirements as the island’s gensets run for only 16 hours a day.
The $25-million estimated cost of the project covers three 500-kilowatt turbines and a storage, with the project to be finished by 2019.
Apparently, the venture has not gone beyond initial plans as there is no report that it was completed in 2019.
While the tidal energy is indeed promising as the tides rise and fall daily at predicted times, harnessing its power has several disadvantages.
Among these are its negative impact on marine life, inconstant power generation due to the changing time of tides, site limitations to those with big differences between low and high tides, high cost of the turbines, and high maintenance costs due to the corrosion.
There is also the matter of the power plant’s capacity to withstand huge waves generated by super typhoons.
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Only nine LGUs in Bicol region were included in the recent national validation for the CY 2022 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), with not one of them from Catanduanes.
The CY 2022 SGLG: Pagkilala sa Katapatan at Kahusayan ng Pamahalaang Lokal is the first implementation of the most rigorous, prestigious, and coveted local governance performance award after the enactment of RA 11292 in 2019. This is the highest recognition given by the DILG to excellent and performing LGUs.
After a thorough assessment of all the LGUs in the Bicol Region, the following were validated, shortlisted, and considered as this year’s potential National SGLG Passers in the Philippines: Legazpi City, Albay; Ligao City, Albay; Iriga City, Camarines Sur; Masbate City, Masbate; Sorsogon City, Sorsogon; Barcelona, Sorsogon; Bulusan, Sorsogon; Irosin, Sorsogon;and Pilar, Sorsogon. Tabaco City, Albay is also included in the shortlist, with the validation to be conducted this September.
To be able to get the seal, LGUs need to pass all 10 governance areas namely: Financial Administration & Sustainability; Disaster Preparedness; Social Protection & Sensitivity; Safety, Peace and Order; Health Compliance and Responsiveness; Sustainable Education; Business Friendliness & Competitiveness; Environmental Management; Tourism, Heritage Development, Culture and the Arts; and Youth Development.
Apparently, not one of the LGUs on the island passed all of the governance areas.
Perhaps the local chief executives were all so busy preparing for the 2022 elections or, worse, they never tried to go for the SGLG.
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DUEL FOR LOVE. A man gets home early from work and catches his wife in bed with another man…
The husband challenges the other man to an old-fashioned duel with his handguns, whoever manages to shoot first and kill the other gets his wife.
The other man agrees, so they go into another room so the wife doesn’t have to see it.
Once in the other room, the husband turns to the other man and says: “Why should either of us have to die? We will both fire a shot into the air and lay on the ground as if we’re dead, when she comes in she will see our ‘lifeless’ bodies and rush to one of us, whoever she chooses can have her.”
The other man agrees again, so they fire into the air and collapse.
The wife throws the door open and peers down at the two men, then backs out of the room and calls out: “Darling, you can come out! They’re both dead!”
A priest was approached one night by Satan himself. “Do not be frightened,” said Satan. “I have an offer to make. I will make you tremendously powerful, famous and rich in return for just one small favour: half of your ability to hear.”
The priest was stunned. “Let me think about it for a few days.”
The next morning, the priest requested to meet the bishop. “Your Excellency, I need your advice for a temptation I have been given!”
He told over his strange encounter. The bishop was shocked. “A deal with Satan?! Do not do it, it will destroy your soul!”
But he could see the priest was not convinced.
So the bishop arranged a meeting with the archbishop. “Your Excellency, this priest has an urgent matter he needs advice about!”
He told over the story. The archbishop bowed his head in silent prayer, and after a few moments responded. “Firstly, your hearing is a gift from God. It would be forbidden to sacrifice any part of it. Secondly, a deal with Satan?!? Never do it!”
But the priest wasn’t convinced. He was imagining all the wealth, fame and power he’d receive. So the archbishop requested an audience with the Pope.
The three of them came into the Papal office in great awe. They sat, and the archbishop spoke. “Your Holiness, this priest has a terrible temptation and needs advice!”
“Sorry,” said the Pope, “could you speak a little louder?”
https://www.ba-bamail.com/jokes/religion-jokes/?jokeid=1547
A CALL FROM HEAVEN. Two friends who grew old together made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other how life after death was. Their biggest fear was that there was no after life at all. After a long life, Dan was the first to die. Benny mourned him and waited for him to come and visit.
True to his word, two months later, as Benny was sleeping, the voice of Dan appeared in his head. “Benny…Benny…”
“My gosh… Is that you, Dan?”
“Yes, I’ve come back like we agreed.”
“That’s wonderful! What’s it like?”
“Well, I get up in the morning, I have intercourse. I have breakfast and then it’s off to the golf course. I have intercourse again, bathe in the warm sun and then have intercourse a couple more times… then I have lunch (keeping healthy, lots of greens). Another romp around the golf course, then pretty much have intercourse the rest of the afternoon. After supper, it’s back to the golf course again. Then it’s more intercourse until late at night. I catch some much-needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again”.
“Wow, Dan! Heaven sounds amazing!”
“What heaven? I’m a rabbit somewhere in Arizona.”
https://www.ba-bamail.com/jokes/heaven-and-hell-jokes/?jokeid=453